Limits
by TheBlueBomberBoomer
Summary: When jimmy accidentally creates a daughter, he finds himself struggling with what to do. What will happen to them? Will he take care of her? Will he keep her a secret? Contains Jimmy x Cindy, Please Review.
1. Homework Delivery

It was a cold day in Retroville. The town seemed pretty calm today. It was nearing the end of fall and it was reaching winter, hence mother nature made it colder and colder by the day. Inside of one home, a teenage boy was upstairs in his room. The room had a space theme in design. The bed had a rocket ship frame with star patterned blankets. A telescope was setup by his bedroom window, and his shelves were lined with personal belongings, as well as books and a lot of trophies too. There was a teenage boy sitting at his desk in front of a computer monitor. He had brown hair and a bigger than average head, and he was wearing a red hooded jacket with a symbol on it that was depicting an atom. He was Jimmy Neutron, the boy genius, one of the smartest people in Retroville, and for his age. He spent his spare time designing his next big invention right now. His computer monitor was displaying complex blueprints on the screen.

"Ugh… this is beginning to get annoying," Jimmy commented, pushing his chair away from the desk before rubbing his hurting head. This was one of his more complicated inventions that he had been working on and off lately, but he had prioritized it, feeling very close to having the device almost complete. His train of thought was interrupted by a barking noise. Jimmy turned around, seeing a robotic dog. He was the teenage boy's proudest invention, Goddard, an advanced robotic companion. He had upgraded and updated the robotic animal a lot over the years so he could do a lot more than just regular canine tricks.

"Oh hey there, Goddard. Don't worry, I'm alright," Jimmy reassured while petting his dog, though he couldn't deny that he was excited to nearly have this invention done. He thought it could do a lot of good for people, though it was hard to keep his excitement up when he was putting entire nights into it at times. His somewhat damaged sleep schedule didn't help his current mental status. Thankfully, no one had noticed so far at school or at home. The boy and dog just then heard a knocking on his room door.

"Come in!" he said, though he immediately regretted accepting the unexpected guest when he saw a girl about his age. She had light blonde hair done up into a ponytail, and she was wearing a green long sleeved sweater. She was Cindy Vortex, his half friend, half rival. The two often bickered amongst one another, but they had been on a number of adventures with each other and all of their friends. Even if not all of them were enjoyable, they were still good memories.

"Hey, Nerdtron," Cindy greeted in her usual passive aggressive way, though she seemed pretty happy today, dropping the backpack that was on her shoulder onto the floor.

"Nice to see you too, Vortex. What are you doing here?" Jimmy questioned, getting up from his chair. Goddard was on the side of the bed, somewhat pretending to sleep, doing his best to not upset Cindy. She didn't mind Goddard but still wouldn't tolerate the mechanical dog annoying her.

"Your mom called the school and said you weren't able to come in today, so I had to bring your homework," Cindy explained, not looking entirely too happy to be doing the work herself, though she did love the autumn weather. Jimmy tilted his head while she handed him his few pages of paperwork.

"Uh, thanks, Cindy. Why didn't you just get Sheen or Carl to do it?" he asked. Cindy sighed, looking a little baffled, just recalling it with a small smile, though clearly it was amusing to her.

"Sheen somehow got a huge amount of gum and got himself stuck to Carl, so the two are up at the hospital trying to get separated," she answered, trying to do her best to suppress a laugh, though Jimmy did notice that this homework wasn't just his. It was also her homework.

"Hey, Vortex, I think you accidentally gave me your homework, too," the boy in red pointed out, but she shook her head.

"Nope. Consider it the way you can pay me back for bringing you your homework," Cindy retorted. Jimmy gave an unamused glare, though he saw Goddard rummaging around Cindy's bag like something had gained his attention, or at least wanted something to help his master. His robotic dog pulled away to hide whatever he gained, Jimmy chuckling.

"I'd be more than happy to do your homework, Cindy. I needed a break from the invention I was working on," Jimmy lied while resting the papers on his desk. This only seemed to add onto her good mood as she picked her backpack back up.

"Thanks. I'll be by later. You can show me this invention then, as well," she bid him farewell before leaving his room to get back to her own activities. Jimmy whistled Goddard over, his loyal companion coming over with something clutched in his mouth. His owner took it away, though realized what it was briefly after.

"Goddard, this is one of Cindy's earrings. Her mom gave her that. I can't use this against her, boy," Jimmy exclaimed, sighing. He had his own limits when it came to trying to get revenge on vortex whenever she did something against him. He couldn't go destroying jewellery. He would just lie and claim she dropped it when she came back later. Jimmy assumed that she had to get her ears pierced again since she hadn't been wearing it. There were some of her blonde strands of hair in the earring, as he could examine. He put it in his pocket before turning to the invention's blueprints on his monitor.

"Then again…The hair on it is perfect for the test."

 **Authors note: I hope you all enjoyed reading, this is my first attempt at a jimmy neutron fic, I haven't decided whether or not to continue yet. Either way have a good day.**


	2. Test

Jimmy had quickly finished the homework of both his own and Cindy's. Now he was walking out into his backyard, Goddard following right behind him. They were heading to the genius teenager's club house that didn't look that big in size, though beside the door handle was a device. Jimmy smiled, seeing the VOX 2000, a DNA scanning device that was, at most, his best means of security. He reached up and tugged a strand of his own hair, and held it up. VOX began scanning the strand before the welcome mat in front of the door dropped down, the two falling inside and going through an odd orange tube of a slide before they landed into a huge underground facility. Jimmy stretched sorely.

"Well that does get us to the lab faster, but I never get in without hurting something on the way down," Jimmy commented. Goddard barked, having not noticed much since they were mostly using the alternate entrance for quicker access. They stood within a huge metal facility where there were a bunch of machines around, along them being tools and other objects, including a huge computer with a big console underneath it. This was his laboratory, which he had created years ago. At first it started off as just the computer and his tools, but he inevitably had to make more and more expansions to the underground laboratory. Jimmy walked to one of the many doorways nearby.

"Goddard, I have to admit. I've never felt so nervous and excited before in my life…" Jimmy stated. This door was different than the other ones. It had a keypad beside it. Only the inventions of his that he wanted to make sure were secure had these special keypads, as well as cameras hidden away to record whoever came in and out. The keypads had two sequences of codes for them to unlock the doors. As Jimmy input the codes, Goddard opened the front of his boxy body, displaying a screen. A few text lines appeared on screen. Jimmy looked to the robot dog's screen to read it.

"Is it because of your invention? Or are you nervous because of what it will do?" it read. His master didn't really have the immediate answer to that.

"I'm more afraid of testing it. Thankfully Cindy is going to help us… without knowing, of course," Jimmy hummed as they entered through the secure door which shut behind them, almost catching Goddard's tail. He growled before continuing on. They entered into a decent sized room where in the middle were two odd circular chambers, both connected to one middle chamber. Jimmy looked like he was getting more excited. There was a control console right in front of the three chambers.

"Goddard, activate audio recording," Jimmy ordered. His robotic companion nodded before a click noise was heard from within its circuitry. His master coughed while going up to the control console and beginning to put in commands.

"This is the genesiologic replication device. I came up with the idea when my dad suffered minor kidney failure from a disease and he might have needed a transplant. Thankfully the doctors were able to treat him, but that did make me think of how so many people need organs. Over 1500 people die waiting for a donor liver to become available alone, and over 28000 people get transplants every year just in our country," Jimmy exclaimed aloud of how this invention came to be and the statistics for why it seemed even more necessary. He didn't have any plans to test it with living organs first, though. He opened the left chamber and the right chamber, leaving the middle closed.

"I made the G.R.D to duplicate organs from minimal genetic material. It can duplicate skin, internal organs, hair, and it's able to bring them up to correct size and age through a quick growing process. It can even change the blood types. It takes two genetic sets of DNA from both materials and copies them… as I will now test with my own hair, and hair from an semi-anonymous donor," Jimmy finished his long explanation. He felt more relaxed, as talking to the recording was helpful. He went to the left chamber and rested Cindy's earring within it, her hair still attached. He reached up and pulled out a few strands of his own hair and went to the right chamber, putting it on the floor. He then returned to the control console.

"I'm setting the hair to be made for a five year old. If this works correctly, the only result should be extremely long hair," he stated. He finished setting up everything, and now it was time for the test. Jimmy pulled back the lever on the control console. Both doors of the two side chambers lowered quickly. Jimmy watched the chambers begin to get illuminated inside. He could only stare, watching his invention begin its job. Both chambers were glowing brightly, the control console displaying the genetic mapping of the hair.

"It's working!" Jimmy smiled. That was, until he heard a loud blaring warning noise, seeing the console's green lights under the buttons all turn red with a flashing caution sign. It was the warning alarm for any glitches that were occurring. Sadly, the teenage boy couldn't get the G.R.D to stop.

"Oh, no, no, no…" he grit his teeth, trying everything he could from the controls to get it to halt, but he couldn't get it to stop. The lights were beginning to flicker in the lab. The machine was drawing far too much energy, more than he anticipated. It was more than his laboratory was able to handle.

"Goddard! Go hit the emergency shut down switch to the power!" Jimmy ordered, his robotic canine barking in agreement before running off to do as he was told. Jimmy watched his inventions lights get brighter as all the lights in the room went off. It was ominous to him. He saw it begin throwing sparks off violently, the main chamber beginning to rattle uncontrollably.

"It should have worked… I went over the schematics alone a hundred times!" Jimmy growled. He had put so much time and effort into this. His excited nervousness was quickly removed from him. He noticed a small fire break out from the primary chamber. He knew what was about to happen. He ducked behind the console, aware the middle chamber was about to explode.

"I was in too much of a hurry to finish it…" Jimmy thought it was his own fault, that he had been in such a haste to finish the device that he unintentionally skipped an important part of it. The machine erupted with a cataclysmic explosion, the entire room getting engulfed in cinders and a dark cloud of smoke, blasting the control console and jimmy away into a nearby wall. He slammed back first onto it, groaning as he slid down it. His head was hurting, having bashed it against the wall quite hard. When he reached up for the area that was most sore, he felt wetness. He pulled back, seeing a stain of blood on his hand. His eyelids were getting heavy and beginning to close against his will. He thought this was the end for him.

"Mom… Dad… Goddard… Sheen… Carl… Cindy… I'm sorry."


	3. Mysterious Girl

Jimmy began to regain consciousness. He was groaning, feeling immense pain from his head and back. He could see the pitch black smoke of the room. His invention had destroyed itself. The test clearly had failed miserably. He had to force himself onto his feet before beginning to stumble around in the smoke. He could see some embers and flames left over from the chambers. Jimmy had no idea how long he had been unconscious. He never felt so miserable from his experiment failing before. However, he did notice something different lying on the ground. Jimmy couldn't make the details out, but he knew it was a person. He thought maybe Goddard had contacted one of his friends for help and they had blacked out from the smoke, too, but they seemed too small to be anyone Jimmy knew.

"I gotta get us out of here…" Jimmy coughed, reaching down and grabbing the person. He couldn't pick them up, though. All he could do was drag them toward the doorway. He hoped for sure it was the exit. Thankfully his memory served him correctly. He entered the doorway, and he was barely out of the room before he lost his grip and collapsed on the ground. He felt like his body was fighting against him. He coughed, gasping for fresh air, when he saw Goddard coming. The door to the failed test chamber had closed behind him, thankfully enclosing the smoke and keeping the fire from spreading within.

"I-I'm okay, boy… someone else was in there with me," Jimmy stated, though he started to realize now that it wasn't one of his friends. The person he had pulled out of the blaze and smoke was a young girl who had long, messy dark yellow hair. She didn't even look six years old.

"I'll try and open the air vents in the test room to allow the smoke to release. You take care of her, boy," Jimmy ordered. Goddard looked at his master worriedly. He didn't seem stable enough to walk far, but he was determined to make sure that everything stayed safe and that it all didn't get any worse. The teenage boy went to the super computer to begin doing as he said. He paid no mind to the child who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He was more worried about making sure the damage was kept to a minimum. Goddard did as ordered, trying to help the young child, unsure how much of the dangerous fumes were inhaled.

The next thirty minutes felt like an entire day to Jimmy. He had opened all the available vents in the testing chamber to allow the smoke to be relieved from the test chamber. He was sitting at his computer with a first aid kit in front of him, trying to patch himself up. He noticed some small cuts and bruises on his arms and some burns, but the burns were the least of his worries. He had a big gash on the back of his head, which was the hardest part to treat. The disinfectant stung badly on contact. He heard Goddard barking while approaching.

"Hey there, boy… it looks like everything's alright," Jimmy smiled, rubbing his robotic dog's head. The smart teenager even felt like he was getting more of his strength back, though a window appeared on his big computer monitor, displaying a video feed from outside. He saw Cindy there, knocking.

"Hey, Nerdtron, you awake? Your mom said you were in here," Cindy said, seeing the camera, aware he could hear her and respond. Jimmy knew she was here and had agreed to see his invention. He was thankful that she wasn't there for the explosion and his own near death experience. He had to think of a lie to keep her away.

"Er… hello, Cindy. Sorry, I can't let you in right now," he apologized, seeing her tilt her head in confusion. Cindy didn't really ever hear him apologize like this unless he was either depressed or distracted, and whenever Jimmy was depressed, it tugged at her emotions for some odd reason. She tried to brush off her usual attitude.

"Is everything okay? You don't sound too good," she asked. Jimmy shook his head, glad she couldn't see him, but thankfully had thought up a quick idea.

"I'm just tired. We have a rat infestation in my lab, so me and Goddard are trying to get them all. I finished our homework though, just get it from my room," Jimmy explained in his thought up lie. He saw her gain a look of disgust at the idea of rats brought up.

"Ough… err, thanks a lot… I'll see you in class tomorrow," Cindy bid him goodbye, not wasting any time getting away to leave him to the task of practical extermination crew. Jimmy sighed in relief, turning to his dog.

"Now we have only one thing left to worry about…" Jimmy said, getting up from his chair. It hurt to stand still, but he felt a lot better than earlier. Goddard barked in agreement, leading him away to another part of the laboratory. He took him to where there were mostly spare parts or such stored away, but there was a bench there that was big enough to be used for resting. Here Jimmy found that Goddard had gotten the young mysterious girl onto the bench and found a blanket for her, but so far, she gave no response. Still slumbering, but she looked at peace all things considered.

"I don't know how she could have gotten into the lab. VOX has a smaller generator that turns on when the rest of the lab's power is off, so security doesn't go offline," Jimmy stated. It was off setting to him. He put his fingers to the young girl's neck. Fortunately, she had a pulse and she was breathing, judging from her slowly rising and falling chest. However, one thing caught the teenage genius's attention; the all too familiar earring that was dangling from the child's left ear.

"…no way," Jimmy shook his head in disbelief. He had to even make sure Goddard could see the earring. His loyal companion insisted that the jewelry was there, it definitely was Cindy's earring, the very one of a set that her mother had given her. There was a big thought rattling his head now, and if he was right he wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do. He picked up the little girl and began to make way toward another room.

"We've got a lot of tests to run, Goddard…"


	4. Unsure

Jimmy spent most of the night with Goddard, running various tests on the young child. He had gotten her changed into some of his older clothes which was a purple shirt that had golden stripes running from shoulder to shoulder, and an old pair of jeans. She still had not awoken, though. Each hour that passed, and each test that was performed, the result was the same. The teenage genius sat in his chair in front of the supercomputer, his robotic dog in his lap the little girl now lying on an air mattress that Jimmy had gotten from his house, normally it was reserved for guests, but this seemed to be a good use of it. He felt his dog lick his face trying to get him to remain calm.

"Every test… I can't believe it Goddard. The G.R.D worked… it must have glitched, and I still can't believe it myself… but now I have a daughter," the teenager stated what had become quite clear. This little girl came from his and Cindy's DNA. The replication had taken their genetic sequences and merged them together randomly. Jimmy had done a lot to make sure that this was true, which was why he did all the tests, and now he was a mental wreck. He had no idea what to do.

"What am I going to do, boy? I can't raise a child! And if Cindy finds out about this, she'll kill me!" Jimmy panted. The injuries on his body seemed to only hurt worse. He rubbed his eyes, while Goddard opened the front of his body, displaying the text screen again. The robotic dog insisted for him to calm down before trying to think up ideas on what to do.

"You could perhaps brainwash your parents and everyone else into believing you have a younger sister," that was the first idea. Jimmy thought it over, having some inventions of his lying around that were good for brainwashing, but he shook his head, declaring the idea not viable.

"No, that's too many people to brainwash. Next suggestion?" he explained why that idea wouldn't work, Goddard displaying his next idea.

"You could pretend she is homeless and let child protective services take her," the robotic dog questioned if this seemed like a good method, but his owner looked saddened just by imagining it. For some reason, the mere thought of letting child protective services near this little girl pulled at his emotions. That might be because of the concussion he suffered.

"Goddard, that system is horrible…" he shot down that idea as well. As far as he knew foster care was not that good, from what information he had anyway. Jimmy looked at the young child, running his hand through her hair. She looked so peaceful in her sleep.

"What if… what if she's not even alive, Goddard? Her heart is pumping and she's breathing, but what if that's all her brains developed to do? It could be damaged, or she could have a number of abnormalities," Jimmy said, feeling that fear taking over him. He really wished he could stay calm better in intense situations, but right now he was more terrified than anything. However, he started to notice something about the girl, which was her hands; one looked normal, but the other hand only had four fingers. She had no pinky on her left hand. Jimmy looked at the time. It was around seven in the morning.

"Ugh… Goddard, I can't miss another day of school. I'm leaving you in charge of monitoring her, okay boy?" Jimmy explained. Goddard barked, panting happily in agreement. His master rubbed his head before running off. He had to get ready to go to school, though he still felt tired. That was his own fault for ignoring the need to sleep last night in trade for running a lot of tests. Jimmy knew that if anything changed, his dog could contact him.

Jimmy had done his best to get himself cleaned up before he went straight for the bus stop. His mind was scattered in too many different directions of thought. He had made an astonishing accomplishment in terms of scientific progress, but it was all by accident. He couldn't even decide what to do with the child, if she ever awoke. He grew depressed, imagining the worst case scenario.

"Hey! You getting on or not!?" the angry bus driver honked his horn, startling the teenage genius. He had been so distracted he hadn't even seen the bus pull up to the bus stop.

"Y-yeah, sorry," he apologized while climbing aboard and heading straight for the back of the bus. He caught a glimpse of Cindy who seemed to be feeling just as good today as yesterday.

"Hey, nerdtron, what was with the zombie act out there?" she mocked. He rubbed his head, doing his best to hide the bandaging on the back of his head.

"Just sleepy," he said, heading for the back of the bus where he could see his two best friends. One was a roundish boy with orange hair and glasses, wearing an orange coat. Sitting across from him was another boy who had spiky black hair and was wearing a blue coat that had an odd super hero figure on it, that being Ultra Lord, a popular multimedia hero created years ago, and ever since then his friend could safely be labelled the biggest Ultra Lord fan ever known.

"Hi, Jimmy," his glasses wearing friend greeted him, being Carl, a genuine lover of llamas who had quite a few medical issues to date. Jimmy sat down between his friends, yawning.

"Hey, Carl. Hey, Sheen. Glad to see you guys aren't stuck together," Jimmy joked, just before being grabbed by his shirt collar.

"It isn't funny! Do you have any idea how hard it was to move?! To do anything?! Especially when being carried by Carl!?" his other friend asked, shaking the genius boy and roughing him up. He was Sheen, a hyperactive boy, and as stated, Ultra Lord's biggest fan. Jimmy made him let go of his coat, aware of how aggravating it probably was to manoeuvre stuck together.

"Sorry! Jeez, Sheen, calm down," Jimmy requested the hyperactive boy to try and ease up, though he had to question his mood today. Sheen was hard to read, and in most cases near impossible, though he was nice to have around for his constant uplifting spirit, even if his low IQ was detrimental to that. Jimmy mentally debated telling his friends about his experiment and what happened yesterday, though he felt like he couldn't even attempt to tell them. He didn't want to let anyone know if he could help it, and he knew Cindy could easily coerce his friends to give out information.

"Sorry… I wasn't able to sleep last night because of the medicine the hospital gave us," Sheen apologized. He and Carl had to be sedated to be separated, and it damaged their sleep schedule quite badly.

"Yeah. It was nice at first, but now I just wanna sleep…" Carl agreed. Bone of the three clearly had a good night's rest. Jimmy smiled, glad to know his friends were here to keep him cheered up.

"I just want to enjoy school today…"


	5. Awoken

The day went on as normal as the cold of the nearing winter only seemed to get colder. In Jimmy's lab, Goddard slumbered in his usual place, letting his power replenish. It had been a hectic week thus far. However, the robotic dog was awoken by the sound of something falling and loudly banging on the floor. He got up, growling, making a run for where the sound came from. Goddard came to a halt fast, realizing what it was. He saw a wrench that had dropped onto the floor. The loyal canine saw the little girl, who was the one that knocked if over. She was standing from the air mattress, looking confused, though she saw Goddard and stared back at the mechanical dog. He panted happily, glad to see she was able to move. He opened his chest to display his monitor.

"Hello. I am Goddard," Goddard typed, seeing her crouch down and attempt to read what he wrote. She tilted her head, unable to make heads or tails of the writing. The dog closed his chest, aware he had to contact Jimmy and inform him immediately of the new development, in terms of his and Cindy's genetic child being awake, though Goddard barely got the message sent out before he saw her wander off to another part of the lab. He barked, trying to follow, knowing he had to make sure she stayed unharmed. There were a lot of inventions left idly unattended in this lab, only the most important ones were locked away securely.

Jimmy was at his locker, exchanging his books for his next class. He had his entire focus on school today, but each time he got to his desk in each classroom, he started daydreaming.

"Hey, Jimmy," he heard, seeing Cindy approaching. He groaned, mentally wanting to avoid her right now. He saw someone alongside her who was wearing a coat with a fading colour of pink to it. Her hair looked recently cut, though the front mostly covered her right eye. She was Libby, Cindy's best friend. Jimmy and her didn't have any problems with each other, though didn't have much in common to get along over aside from the group's adventures.

"What is it, Vortex?" Jimmy tiredly requested for her to cut to the point. Libby put her hand on her hip with a smirk.

"Wow, you weren't kidding. He is acting weird today…" Libby said, having been informed earlier of the odd behaviour of their friend, the way he acted in class and at lunch. His mind was only focused on one person right now. Jimmy heard a light beeping sound, looking down at his watch. It meant he had received a message.

"Look, Jimmy, I just wanted to say thanks for doing my homework. Did you get the rat problem handled?" Cindy thanked him for the deal he had done for her for how she had delivered his homework to him in the first place.

"Er… sort of. I'll probably take me and Goddard a week to get rid of all the rats," he continued his lie of the rat infestation as he pushed in on his watch, making it open up to display a small monitor to read the message. His watch was quite the advanced piece of portable tech, being able to control some of his inventions with it, as well as receive messages from his friends and Goddard.

"She is awake," the message read. It had been made in a haste, as Jimmy could see. He was wide eyed, knowing he had one class left. He grit his teeth in a state of panic. His daughter was out of her unconscious state. It just sent his mind back off track once again. Cindy and Libby noticed their genius friend's face go pale, like he was terrified.

"Jimmy…? Are you sure you're alright?" Cindy asked, hoping for the honest truth from him this time. Jimmy looked at them, pushing a button and making his watch close again. He hated worrying the blonde girl.

"Yeah. Come on, we'll be late for class," he stated, wanting to get his last class over with so he could get home right away. He headed off down the hall, away from his two friends. Libby could see that all too concerned look on her best friend's face and rolled her eyes.

"Girl, you know he's lying, right?" Libby pointed out the all too obvious, seeing her nod in agreement, aware of the obvious lies as they followed along to get to class.

"If Neutron needs help, he'll ask one of us," Cindy claimed, trying to not show her worry, but it was far too late already, wondering if there was something she could do to surprise Jimmy to cheer him up since she specifically had been in a great mood lately. She wondered if that was what was annoying him. Then again, the two hadn't actively fought in quite some time now. She decided to talk it over with Libby once school let out.

Meanwhile back at the lab, Goddard was doing his best to try and make sure the little girl didn't cause any trouble, though any attempts at communication via his monitor only seemed to confuse her, but she seemed to understand what not to touch whenever Goddard barked. Right now, the child was in the room of spare parts that seemed more like a small junkyard. Goddard was panting tiredly, getting more and more drained the longer he had to babysit, though something caught her attention in one of the many junk piles. She approached and pulled it out. It was a small gear that was rusted, clearly having seen its fair use in the past, but inevitably wound up in the pile.

Goddard didn't see any harm in her having this. She seemed so fascinated with every little thing, even if it was her own earring which she treated with a lot of care, though as she was holding the gear, there was a rumble that shook the lab. Goddard growled, staying on guard. It wasn't an earthquake, as they were pretty uncommon in Retroville, but it felt more threatening. They heard a loud banging noise that drew the little girl's attention. She put the rusted gear in her pocket, going to where the noise came from. Goddard following, barking loudly, trying to get her to stop when they arrived to the main room of the lab near the supercomputer. The ceiling was dented, like something was falling in from it.

Goddard barked, shoving her out of the way right before the ceiling broke. Something came falling from above, knocking the robotic dog aside. He emitted a loud yelp in pain. The dog and girl saw something landing in the lab. She looked in awe, seeing what it was that had broken into the lab.


	6. Amber Neutron

Goddard was trying to get back on his feet after being knocked away from the destruction of the ceiling of the lab. The robotic dog saw someone standing there from the destruction like they had tunneled in. It looked like a person in a white tight uniform. Jimmy's daughter was lying on the floor, staring at the person's back like she just witnessed a great trick. Goddard growled, getting up and barking at the intruder who had somehow gotten past VOX. Goddard's back opened up, pulling out an odd looking green weapon that was cylinder shaped. It was a plasma cannon, one of his many tools for self-defense, but in this case they had no choice but to go aggressive. This person somehow had eluded security already, so that was a sign to show not to underestimate them.

"Stand down," the person said, though they said it slowly and it sounded disrupted by static. Goddard barked before firing a bolt of plasma. It hit the person in the head and bounced off, burning down into the ground. The person aimed their fist at Goddard before firing a small circular device that stuck to the mechanical dog's side. It unleashed a strong current of static, Goddard yelping in pain before his eyes lost their light and he fell over onto his side, ceasing function.

"Download the information and extract yourself. Your shields got damaged badly from that attack," that same voice chimed, the assumed robber walking toward the super computer. They took a seat as one of their fingers extended into one of the USB ports, beginning to download all of the information from it.

Jimmy's daughter approached the robot stealing information. They looked at her like they were trying to determine if she was a threat or not, but she seemed to not understand the threatening look. Just after, they heard a loud beep from the supercomputer.

"Unlocking entrance," the super computer spoke. The person quickly withdrew their limb before getting up from the chair.

Jimmy had arrived home just a brief minute ago. He had made straight for his lab the second he got off the bus. Goddard's message had made him afraid of what would happen. He was sliding down the orange tubes into his lab, but as he descended, he was shocked by what he saw.

"Goddard!?" Jimmy gasped, seeing his loyal dog deactivated nearby, and his daughter standing by the unknown assailant. The information thief aimed its hand back at the hole in the ceiling, their hand firing, having a rope attaching it from the wrist. When it latched onto the roof, the burglar quickly pulled themselves out. Jimmy was too busy processing the situation to react.

"You're… awake," the boy genius muttered, seeing the little girl approaching him. He was looking at his and Cindy's daughter, as it technically showed right before him. Jimmy ripped off the electric device from Goddard, which he saw was a machine disabling device, and rested it aside.

"Look, I… uhh, I need to get VOX online and get the repair bots to help fix the ceiling," Jimmy said. His daughter only gave him a confused look before seeing her father going over to the super computer. He had to handle one problem at a time. Panicking wasn't going to help. His daughter went over to Goddard seeing the minor scorch mark on the robotic dog's side from where the device was attached. She opened his side up, revealing a small electrical panel. One of the primary power converters was destroyed, having been overloaded by the electricity. She removed it easily before approaching Jimmy.

"VOX was disabled… what is going on?!" Jimmy muttered before feeling something tug on his shoulder sleeve, seeing his daughter standing there, presenting the destroyed power converter.

"Oh… um, you want one of those? I guess it won't hurt you," Jimmy tried to calm down, wondering what she wanted this for. He was glad his daughter was safe though. It felt reassuring to know she could walk around and clearly wasn't suffering from any internal problems thus far, but she looked like she was trying hard to understand him. Jimmy pointed to the nearby shelf of tools before he got back to work on trying to repair VOX and summon the repair bots.

The little girl put the power converter aside, beginning to dig around in all the small pieces of what felt like more drawers filled with spare parts. She found a fully functional one, gaining a smile before going over to Goddard and going onto her knees beside the robotic dog. She then put the piece in there. Her brain was working surprisingly hard, just seeing this complex machinery. She closed the side of the loyal dog's box body before watching his eyes light back up. Goddard reactivated just like that and stood up straight, barking. He began licking her joyfully.

"Goddard! Oh, thank goodness you're alright," Jimmy sighed in relief, having gotten VOX back online. They could see a few robots entering into the room, looking like they had a construction worker style build to them. They were designed by Jimmy a year ago when his inventions were beginning to cause heavy damage to his lab and the repairs were eating most of his time. He figured now it was time to meet his daughter.

"Uh, hi… I'm Jimmy, your dad," Jimmy tried to start the conversation with the little girl to explain who he was, at least in relation to her. He felt some odd sense of pride from seeing her alive and standing, though he could tell she didn't have a firm understanding of talking or listening, or even reading. He rubbed his pet's head.

"I can't believe you fixed him. Can you tell me what happened?" the boy in the red coat asked. Although his daughter kept that confused look, she managed to respond.

"Ah! Bahro-go," she said. Her voice sounded off, but Jimmy knew this was probably her first time speaking. Goddard barked, glad to have some advancement in the child's progress already, though Jimmy knew he could overlook the security footage to see what happened, but he knew one thing that needed to be stated now.

"It's great you're awake, but we need to give you a name…" Jimmy explained, beginning to wrack his brain for names that sounded fitting for the child, though it wasn't just his own thoughts he was listening to. His brain was occupied partially by imagining what Cindy would want for a name. He assumed it was out of guilt in some sense for keeping the child secret.

"How does Quinn sound?" Jimmy quirked. He saw her stare off in the other direction, assuming this meant she didn't like the name, that or she didn't understand him again.

"Rachel?" he suggested. She still gave no response. He sighed, still trying to think.

"I'm thinking too hard for names I want. What would Cindy come up with?" he murmured, his daughter looking at him patiently. She clearly didn't mind long waits, and from what Goddard saw, she was able to remain calm in a bad situation, but she was oblivious to how much danger she was in. Suddenly, the fitting name came to him.

"Amber! How would you like that for a name?" Jimmy offered. That was the best name he could come up. He saw his daughter jump, in response to the word, Jimmy giving a smile in return.

"Amber Neutron. I should be nervous, Goddard, but actually… I feel great," Jimmy claimed. For some reason, seeing Amber happy brought his own internal joy. He knew he couldn't ignore her needs entirely. He made a mental note on the fact that his daughter had repaired Goddard. Clearly she learnt fast in terms of the mechanics of the robotic pet. He held out his hand, and his daughter put her hand in his.

"I'll worry about what the person that broke in for later…" Jimmy thought. If they did return, he would handle the burglar himself, but he was willing to figure out what was stolen later. No invention as of now had no importance as much as his own child. Jimmy found the train of thought quite odd, but right now she needed some help with her English. Jimmy began to go against any mental idea of removing Amber whatsoever. It was strange how crazy he felt just the other day at the mere thought of raising a child, but now the whole idea didn't seem too fear inducing. The three began to head for another part of the lab, Jimmy holding his daughter's hand.

"I'll figure out something. I promise, Amber."


	7. Teaching

It had been about five days since Jimmy had officially named his daughter. He had been doing a good job at keeping her. Every time when he got home from school, he headed straight for his lab and spent the rest of the day acting as her teacher, trying to help her develop her mind. His child needed the teaching quite badly, as her brain seemed underdeveloped in some areas, but better in others. He had a sense of pride, every day that passed seemed to be better than the next. Today, Jimmy was sitting at his supercomputer and looking over security footage of the person who broke in a while back. He couldn't figure out what they had stolen, though so far everything was accounted for.

"The more I try to understand this, the more confusing it gets…" Jimmy muttered to himself, not sure what the person wanted, though currently he had his supercomputer scanning to take account for all files and data to make sure none of that had been taken. Just then, he heard an all too familiar explosion from another room of the lab, followed by laughter. He sighed, getting up and going to see if everything was okay.

"Amber! Honey, are you alright?" Jimmy called out, though mentally questioned himself at what he said. He had been saying odd things to his daughter like that. He assumed it was just how his mind was beginning to act around his child. He saw pieces of Goddard everywhere and a small scorch mark from the explosion. He saw Amber sitting nearby at a desk in a swivel chair, that bright smile on her face.

"I thought I asked you not to tell him to play dead," Jimmy said while Goddard started to reassemble himself. Playing dead was a specialty of the robotic dog. He exploded into a bunch of pieces, only to reform seconds after.

"So…sorry," Amber apologized. Her voice didn't sound too steady. It sounded higher pitched, but also tired. Jimmy smiled, glad she had started understanding him more and more by the day and was getting the hang of talking. So far, though, Jimmy had only focused on working on her English and mathematics. Goddard barked, sitting in place. The genius teenager ran his hand through her hair, reassuring it was fine, though he noticed an open book lying on the desk.

"What are you reading there?" Jimmy inquired, picking up the book.

"It… it's a med-medicine book," Amber answered to the best of her ability. It was quite a thick book and it looked like she barely got even twenty pages through it, like she had been thoroughly reading it, each page from top to bottom. Jimmy recognized the book on medicine though, it described what each disease did individually and how one could diagnose it based on what symptoms to look out for. He used it and a few other medical texts himself when designing the genesiologic replication device.

"I don't know if I'm alright with you reading that…" Jimmy commented. He really had no idea how to feel about this. It was great how she could read now, but this book seemed unfitting for a child, though that statement said just now sort of felt hypocritical to him, all things considered. She was his and Cindy's genetic child when he thought about it, and she thus had the potential to have a great mind, but he knew genetics weren't the main thing to pertain to one's IQ. He was going to raise her not just his own way, but the way he thought Cindy would want her raised. Amber didn't really know what to say in response, seeming saddened from hearing the slight disapproval of the book.

"Don't get upset. If you like it, then I won't stop you from reading it. Just try and not make Goddard play dead anymore," Jimmy stated, seeing his daughter's smile which made him feel great inside. He saw Goddard come up, barking. His daughter pet the mechanical dog, just before they heard a beeping noise, indicating an alert from the supercomputer. He left his daughter to let her continue reading, though Amber looked over at the tons of tools and spare parts lying around which added onto the untidiness of the laboratory. She was having an idea.

"Hey, Jimmy! Open up," he heard, recognizing the voice, seeing his camera's direct feed of outside. Sheen was standing outside, beside him being Libby who looked only half interested to be there.

"Sheen, you sure he's even in there?" Libby had to wonder aloud. Jimmy didn't expect his friends to come at all today, but then he had been avoiding them for the last near week. His parents didn't notice any difference in his behaviour, thankfully.

"Hey, Sheen. Hi, Libby. Is something wrong?" Jimmy asked through the microphone he had available.

"Nah we just wanted to see if you wanted to come with us to the candy bar," Sheen explained what they were here for. The candy bar was a pretty great ice cream and candy shop that was set up in town, they went there often together. He wondered if he really wanted to go, but he thought his daughter would be fine alone for a few short hours.

"I'll be right outside," Jimmy agreed to come along before letting the camera retract. His supercomputer wasn't done scanning its internal files yet. He saw Amber looking around for some spare part. Her father didn't pay much mind to this.

"Amber, I'm going to go out for a while. Will you be alright by yourself?" he asked, offering to stay if she really wanted him to. She shook her head.

"I-I'll be fine, d-dad," Amber said before wrapping her arms around his waist, giving him a goodbye hug. Jimmy loved every moment with his daughter. He couldn't be any happier with her if he tried. He returned her warm embrace for a moment, and after that, he left the laboratory to go with his two friends to the candy bar, but before he got outside, he had one question quirk into his head.

"Did she have one of my super batteries?"


	8. Pride

Jimmy had went with Libby and Sheen to the candy bar in town. They were sitting at a booth table by the window. The candy bar was pretty lively today right now. Jimmy was taking bites out of his sundae of various flavours, and Sheen and Libby were sharing their own.

"That test nearly fried my brain today…" Sheen commented. They had a complicated test today that was based on history. Jimmy found it easy himself, but his hyperactive friend always had trouble whenever it came to his own studies. The teenage genius didn't seem too talkative right now. Libby had been noticing this for a while and looked to sheen.

"Hey, mind going and getting another sundae?" she requested. Sheen happily nodded, climbing over the table to get out of the booth quickly. She rolled her eyes before turning her attention to Neutron while their friend was away.

"What's going on, Jimmy?" Libby started, gaining a confused look from him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jimmy quirked, his head partially tilted in confusion. He had been distracted thinking about Amber entirely and his own mental notes of what to do with her when he got back to his lab. Since her English had been better, he was considering starting to teach his daughter chemistry next. He saw Libby shake her head.

"Look, you've been acting weird for nearly a week. Cindy is getting worried about you, since you're not acting like yourself and being nicer to her," Libby explained. Cindy wouldn't remotely confess to her worries for her supposed rival. Jimmy was caught off guard hearing that, assuming the girls had talked with his other friends about this.

"I'm fine, Libby. I'm just caught up with important inventions," the boy in the red coat lied, but Libby sighed, getting a little annoyed at the conversation already. It was quite the obvious lie for her to see through.

"Look, if you're depressed, you can tell us and we can help. I'm only talking to you about this, because when you aren't in a good mood, Cindy isn't either," Libby continued, wondering if this was something going on between the two friends behind the other's backs that they didn't know about.

"…Libby, I'm not depressed," Jimmy answered, though he asked himself if he really should tell her the truth. Libby was trustable with a secret, but he feared greatly that she would tell Cindy about their genetic daughter afterwards. He rubbed his arm. This was a decision where he had to trust with his gut and not his brain. He hated those kind of decisions more than anything.

"Come to my lab in two hours, I'll show you," he explained, getting up and beginning to walk away to leave the candy bar, though he barely got out the door before she realized something.

"Hey, wait! You didn't pay for your food!" Libby angrily said, but Jimmy was already gone, having accidentally forgot to leave his money for the food and had left it to Sheen and his girlfriend to cover the bill. Libby knew she was going to meet him again in a little while, but she was worried about what was distracting him, thinking if it was big enough to need to be kept secret, it must be really bad.

Jimmy had went straight back to his home and stood in front of the entrance to his clubhouse, letting VOX scan his hair. He heard the door unlock, stepping inside, wanting to get back to his lab. He was mentally going over what to tell Libby and how to word it all. He didn't know why, but he really needed to get this off his chest and get her opinion on what to do.

"Amber! I'm back!" Jimmy called out while walking through his lab, though stopped when he arrived to his workshop, seeing Goddard and his daughter.

"H-hi… daddy," Amber greeted her father in her stuttered tone. Jimmy focused immediately on what was in her hands. It was a rat that looked pretty big in size, and it was being stroked by her.

"Um… Amber, dear, why do you have a rat?" Jimmy nervously inquired. He wasn't the biggest fan of the rodents. In fact, he had Goddard designed with the ability to capture and release rats that got into the lab. It felt like a reminder of the lie he made before about many rats plaguing the lab. Still, he wondered how his daughter exactly caught one.

"H-he got… stuck. I-I helped him," Amber explained to the best of her minimal vocal ability. Goddard didn't have any problem with it. Jimmy then noticed an odd contraption on the workbench. It looked like an odd bunch of wires, though he did notice two of his super batteries hooked up to the device. Whatever she was working on, it wasn't anywhere near done yet.

"D-do you w-want to hold h-him?" Amber offered to her father. The rat seemed pretty content, though it had a few scratches and marks on its little fury body. Jimmy shook his head.

"Er… no thanks, honey. I'll find you a container for him later. What are you making?" he asked. It looked odd, seeming like four smaller parts being worked on separately, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it, though he did feel an odd pride from seeing his daughter's work. Goddard had been doing his best to keep her safe to make sure she didn't do anything dangerous.

"A-an invention…" she simply stated while putting the rat down on the workbench. It looked like she had plans to use it as a test subject. Jimmy never really liked using mice for tests. He found it much cleaner and safer to just experiment on himself.

"I know, Amber. I meant what does it do?" her father rephrased the question. His daughter had an odd gleam in her eyes that did look all too familiar. He only saw that whenever Cindy got excited. It felt unnerving to him though.

"I-it's a ma-machine de…designed to b-boost l…leukocytes i-in the bo-body," Amber explained. It was hard for her to talk, but she was getting the hang of it. Jimmy looked at Goddard, a little astonished, though when he processed what she said, he had to continue his questioning.

"Leukocytes? You mean white blood cells?" Jimmy asked, making sure he heard his child right. Amber just gave a nod to him. He picked her up, pulling her into a hug, feeling a huge sense of pride in his heart.

"This is great! Your first invention…" Jimmy said he hadn't made any sort of plans to try and teach her about creating inventions, as he only had plans on acting as a teacher, but now he was reconsidering. Amber giggled, enjoying her father's joy. When he put her down she saw the rat nibbling at one of the cables of her invention. She picked the rodent back up, not wanting it to damage anything further.

"I love you, Amber. But what are you going to test it on?" Jimmy exclaimed, seeing her hold up the rat that his daughter had grown quite fond of, apparently.

"H-he's sick, I-I think… h-he's acting all t-tired and n-not hungry when I tr-tried to fe-feed him," Amber claimed. Jimmy immediately took a step back, Goddard gaining an uneasy look across his robotic face.

"The rats sick?!" Jimmy shouted in startle, trying to regain his composure. Quickly, he took the rat from his daughter's hands.

"Clean your hands… no, make that your entire arms. I'm going to go find him a sterile containment unit," Jimmy ordered. Amber nodded, walking off to clean up, understanding why her father was upset. The genius teenager looked down at the sick rat in his hands, sighing.

"Being a parent's harder than I expected…"

 **Authors Note: I hope you all are enjoying the fic, thus far. I'm happy with the response it has gotten, and I hope you all enjoy what is to come.**


	9. Advice

Jimmy had left his daughter to continue working on her inventions. He was sitting at his supercomputer, looking over the results of the scan to see if that intruder had stolen anything since none of his inventions were missing. He assumed the next thing to be taken would be information. Sadly he was right.

"Well Goddard… we found out what our visitor was after," Jimmy said, looking to the mechanical dog beside him who seemed concerned by how unhappy the genius teenager was. Whatever it was clearly concerned him. He sighed, looking at the file sitting on the computer.

"They copied my documents of metal refining, and how when done another way it can be made even tougher," Jimmy explained, not sure why someone would want to steal the information on an alternative method for making metal even more durable than it was. His head hurt just trying to think of who would try and steal it. Suddenly his supercomputer exposed a small window displaying the entrance to the clubhouse once again. He saw Libby standing there.

"VOX, unlock entrance," Jimmy ordered, knowing what he had invited her here for. He felt a little nervous, since he had invited Libby over merely for advice. He knew she could keep a secret as well, but he desperately needed someone's opinion on what to do. He felt too conflicted between informing Cindy or not about their genetic daughter.

"Hey, Jimmy," Libby greeted while approaching. She was curious about what was going on with Neutron, whatever he wanted to privately talk over.

"Hi, Libby. Sorry for asking you over like this," Jimmy apologized. Libby shook her head to claim it was fine.

"So what's bothering you?" she requested him to try and explain, hoping to be of some help to get him feeling better. Goddard had left the room to let him speak. He sighed, wondering where to start.

"Like I said earlier, Libby, I'm not depressed. If anything, I'm feeling better than ever," Jimmy started, making note to leave out the information theft. He knew that announcing the news about his daughter would be a fact he would never be able to go back on.

"Maybe it'd be better if I just showed you," Jimmy claimed, feeling his vocal cords fighting against him during this conversation. Libby had a raised eyebrow, wondering if this was going to be bad or good. She followed him into another room of the lab. When they arrived to the other room, Libby immediately became confused when she saw Amber at the work bench, who seemed more focused on her machine. The sick rat she had gotten earlier was in a small container nearby, the closest thing to a cage they had.

"I didn't know you were a babysitter now, Neutron," Libby joked, Jimmy not really caring much but thankful she at least tried to make the situation lighter.

"Amber, honey, come here," Jimmy requested his daughter if she wasn't busy on her invention. Amber smiled, not hesitating to obey her father's call.

"Ye-yes, daddy?" Amber said, wondering who this was. Libby looked at Jimmy. He could tell by the look in her eyes she was having trouble processing all of this. He looked happy, at least. Jimmy picked Amber up in his arms.

"I… I had an accident with an invention. And I couldn't be happier that it happened," Jimmy explained. Libby saw that all too familiar earring hanging on the ear of the little girl, recognizing it as one of Cindy's prized possessions that she had actually claimed went missing just the other day.

"Jimmy… oh gosh," Libby reacted, putting the pieces together quite easily.

"Libby please calm down. I've been focusing on raising her so much that it's been distracting me," Jimmy claimed putting his daughter down. Amber was aware that she was a little abnormal when it came to her creation, but she wasn't upset. It just made her more fascinated in the technology her father had.

"Di-did I make he-her mad?" Amber asked. Libby just sighed. She couldn't be mad. The child was nice and didn't deserve any hatred for just one of Jimmy's accidents. In fact, it was one of the better end results of his inventions malfunctioning to her knowledge.

"No, just… your daddy confuses a lot of people really easy," Libby joked, already teasing him with the new father tag he had acquired.

"I wanted your opinion if… if I should tell her mother," Jimmy tried to get more to the point, hoping she already figured out who was Amber's genetic mother.

"Huh… Jimmy, you know that she's already got plans for her future and already picked out a college," Libby claimed. She felt guilty saying it, but Cindy already had her life planned. It was just how she was, but as a person raising a child wasn't anywhere in that plan.

"I know, but it's been driving me crazy… I love amber a lot, Libby, and I don't want her or Cindy to not know each other," Jimmy tried to explain his point. Libby understood, rubbing her head.

"Ugh… Jimmy, I'm sorry, I really can't tell you what to do, but it's better to leave Cindy out of it," she repeated before walking away, planning to leave the lab and head straight home. Amber kept quiet, looking away. Jimmy grabbed Libby's shoulder, stopping her.

"Wait! I can trust you… right? With keeping all this secret from everyone? Even Sheen?" Jimmy requested. He had put a lot of faith into her with unveiling Amber's existence. Libby nodded.

"Of course… but they'll find out eventually. You have to be responsible and figure out what to do," Libby agreed to keep this secret, before she left them alone. Jimmy groaned, his heart practically struggling to fight his brain.

"Sorry, Amber. I shouldn't have brought her at all," he apologized. His daughter understood the whole conversation, wishing she had gotten a warning before his friend arrived in the first place.

"I-I think sh-she might be right," Amber stated, the best her still adapting voice could utter. Jimmy hated to have his daughter thinking that way about the person that was her genetic mother. He got down to her level of height.

"I promise things will be fine. One thing that's important to anything is patience," he reassured his daughter, though it seemed like lately his life had only become even more hectic than preferred it to be, but he knew to find a way to handle it. He had an idea on how to cheer her up. As he himself could see, the machine she had been working on to try and boost white blood cells in one's body looked to be almost complete.

"How about we test your invention?"


End file.
